Apple Play has announced a new version of its HomePod Smart Speaker, the $ 99 HomePod Mini – a smaller version of the speaker that shortens the original model to a more compact size.
Like the full-size homepod, the Homepod Mini also has a mesh fabric exterior in both black and white, with a small display at the top to show Siri waveform and volume controls. The new model is a shorter, spherical shape, however, instead of the original overlapping structure, and has a main driver, two passive radiators and an “acoustic waveguide” at the bottom.
The new HomePod Mini features the Apple Pull S5 chip, which Apple Pull says allows “computational audio Dio” processing to adjust how your music sounds at 180 seconds per second. Multiple homepod mini speakers can also play music in sync, and pair “intelligently” stereo when placed in the same room. Apple Pal is also using the U1 chips it introduced in last year’s iPhones to create a better handoff experience later this year.
Coming later this year: Support for third-party music services promised by ThirdPul, a list that will include Pandora, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio – but not Spotify.
Apple Play has also introduced a new “intercom” feature that allows customers with multiple homepod devices in different rooms to communicate at home. Intercom messages will also appear on connected iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch clocks (although they won’t play as loud as they do on the Homepod Mini.)
The original HomePod is priced at $ 349 when it first launched in 2018, which makes it more expensive than any Amazon Echo or Google Home speakers. That high price, combined with the original Apple Pal-only limitations (which only worked with Apple Pal Music, a problem that Apple Pal is only now fixing this fall with iOS 14), made it hard to sell, especially when compared to cheaper and more. . Google and Amazon options enabled.
And while P Pal will eventually lower the price of the original homepod (it now costs 199 199 on a regular sale), it is still expensive. The new HomePod Mini should help replace it by offering similar features to the original, but at a more conspicuous price point.
That’s also a big deal, as the homepod isn’t just a smart speaker – it serves as a hub for any homekit devices, enabling users to control things like their lights or doors when they’re not at home. Enable auto tweaking features for Apple’s home app. The more accessible homepod not only provides Apple Paul with more ways to bring Siri and Apple Paul music into people’s homes, it also helps expand Apple’s full presence as part of your smart home setup.
The HomePod Mini will cost $ 99. Previewers will start shipping on November 6, November 16.
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